[freebsd-amd64] Possible 3ware 8506-12 SATA Controller issues...

[mike]

I had nearly the exact same card and setup - dual opteron, freebsd-amd64,
5.2.1-REL, 8506-8 card.

When I called 3ware the guy told me AMD64 support for FreeBSD would be in
their 9000 series of cards - so I sent back my 8506-8 and got a 9500S-8.
BNesides for the hardware and BIOS improvements, they also did come out
with a driver as well. I could not get it to work loaded in the kernel and
kernel modules do not work for AMD64 yet. SO right now I have an email out
to the guys there asking if they can help me out.

Apparently they only tested it for FreeBSD 4.9 and 5.1. However, they did
mention that support for the 8500 series and FreeBSD 5/amd64 would be much
later in the summer or year. Further reason why I took the hassle to RMA
the 8500 card and get the 9500S.

My kernel also recognized the old card, even though the 3ware tech guy
said "that is not supported properly, it might see it, but it won't work
good" - the driver might work halfway, but you're also missing out on all
the 3dm utils and whatnot, which are important to the maintenance of your
array. The newest drivers for the 9500 series include all that - so they
are providing properly supported stuff for our platform now, if only I can
get it to work with a 5.2.x series kernel.

I'd like to try it out as a kernel module, but kernel modules don't
work yet in 5.2.x/AMD64. 3ware told me they need to get someone else
involved to work on the kernel driver issue too...

So I've been patient waiting for them to help.

Email me back with any questions. I can give you my contact there so there
can be an additional person bugging him for status on this. =)

Hope this helps!
- mike


On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, Peter Losher wrote:

> So I am tracking down a possible controller issue with a dual-Opteron
> system (running the amd64 port - 5.2.1-REL branch) which has a 3ware
> 8506-12 SATA controller controlling 1.2TB of disk space.
>
> While the system iself is nice, under sustained high disk I/O, the system
> randomly locks up hard. (requires a hard reset)
>
> In trying to diagnose the problem I noticed the kernel recognises it as a
> 12 channel controller (albiet from the 7000 series):
>
> -=-
> % grep twe /var/run/dmesg.boot
> twe0: <3ware 7000 series Storage Controller. Driver version 1.50.00.000>
> port 0x8c00-0x8c0f mem 0xfb800000-0xfbffffff,0xfc7ffc00-0xfc7ffc0f irq
> 29 at device 1.0 on pci1
> twe0: 12 ports, Firmware FE7S 1.05.00.063, BIOS BE7X 1.08.00.048
> -=-
>
> When we took delivery of the system late last year, the 12 channel
> version of the 8506 card was so new you had to run 5.2-RC2 to get a
> version of the twe driver to support it.  Have there been changes to the
> driver since then to better support this card?
>
> (Of course the problem may be elsewhere, the MB, CPU(s), memory...  The
> joys of HW debugging)  Side note I have noticed that I can install 5.2.1
> on the box and update to the latest patch level, but subequent 'make
> buildworld's usually dies randomly on a signal 4 error.
>
> Best Wishes - Peter
> --
> Peter_Losher at isc.org | ISC | OpenPGP Key E8048D08 | "The bits must flow
>